Connections 2025: Frequent Route Network 2.0

This is the second blog post in our week-long series about Connections 2025. We’ve heard your burning questions and have answers to your top questions.

Day 2 – Question: What about frequent routes?

As it stands today, Capital Metro’s “High Frequency Route Network” is comprised of six routes – two MetroRapid and four MetroBus – that run every 15 minutes or less. These routes come within a half mile of 330K people and serve 50% of Capital Metro’s existing customers. Connections 2025 proposes a “frequency-first” approach with three times the number of today’s frequent routes!

Implementation of Capital Metro’s first High Frequent Routes remains one of the most successful recommendations from our last service plan update (ServicePlan 2020). In June of 2015, Capital Metro boosted the all-day, all-week frequency of a number of routes based on their ridership, productivity and coverage. On average, for each hour of service invested in improving the frequency of those routes, ridership increased by approximately 15 riders/hour.

The new draft Connections 2025 service plan recommends expanding the amount of frequent routes in the system from 6 to 17! This would mean that a route coming every 15 minutes or less would travel within a half mile walk of 550K people (that’s an increase of over 200K) and serve 82% of Capital Metro’s existing customers, a significant increase in both categories. The proposed expansion of the frequent route network is a result of both public feedback and national best practices in transit system design.

Currently, frequent transit service in Austin has been limited to a select few corridors. The new plan will allow anyone with a transit pass to access an entire network of frequent services with fast, convenient and reliable mobility all across the Capital Metro service area.

Coupled with the Connections 2025 proposal to flatten Local and Premium fares into one tier, the plan would design a faster, easier boarding experience with simplified connections. The Connections 2025 Draft Network is designed to work as a cohesive network, simplified for riders.

How do you feel about an expansion of the Capital Metro High Frequency Route Network?

Please visit Connections2025.org to share your thoughts on the proposed plan by viewing our interactive map and route-by-route proposals. The routes in red or blue on the map would make up the High Frequency Route Network (routes operating every 15 minutes or better).

For more information, visit Connections2025.org, call 512-369-6000 or email feedback@connections2025.org.